Sunday, March 7, 2010

Muse can give a concert!

Man, can Muse give a concert. The last time I saw them was in 2005 in some cruddy basement in Milwaukee with terrible acoustics. They were still good, but the venue wasn't working for them and even for a small venue, their gate sales couldn't have been that good. Fast-forward to 2010.... What a difference - sold out show in the biggest indoor arena in Boston... I wouldn't be surprised if Madison Square Garden had sold out the night before.

The show was in short, amazing. Their songs are wicked hard to play (I know because I've learned some), and those guys must have been practicing for hours on end for weeks, because they were not only hitting every note, but Matt Bellamy decided to play solos behind his head Jimi Hendrix style when not jumping around. The laser and light show was great as well, and their use of floating platforms that also projected video was very unique. They even ended up nearly running out of tour shirts before the opening act took stage! What a difference a few years can make.

The Silversun Pickups who I'm a huge fan of were also quite good, but I don't think they've gotten the hang of playing big arena shows. They also seem like the kind of band that would be great to catch in a small club, if they'll ever be able to tour around and play anything that small again. The stadium was nearly full at 7:30 on the dot to see these guys who were the opening act. A.) Never heard of such an established band being an opener, and B.) I guess they're starting to get known, and all along, I thought that I was the only guy that knew them but I guess not as the whole crowd was singing along to most of the songs. In any case, great ticket combination for them because both of the people I went with had never heard of them (I dragged us there to see them open), and they were both won over as fans after that set.

If you're reading this and the tour is coming to your town. Get a ticket stat regardless of the price. If I wasn't a broke grad student, I'd buy a ticket, airfare, and hotel out to another show right now instead of writing this blog post.